Friday, January 1, 2010

Who's Next, the 1971 album from The Who, is an absolute barnstormer. Forty minutes of powerful, concentrated ROCK. Of course, when an album opens with "Baba O' Riley," and closes with "Won't Get Fooled Again," I guess this kind of goes without saying.

What makes this a GREAT album though, is the way they balance the brash, ballsy rock with slower, mid-tempo love songs that are every bit as sincere and as convincing as something like "Fooled Again." It feels raw and powerful and, perhaps most important of all, authentic. Listening to the whole thing front to back, you feel the regret, the heartbreak, the anger, the need for escape, and all the confusion that comes with.

And of course, Keith Moon is absolutely KICKING ASS behind the drums, from start to finish.

I've learned a long time ago that I need some sort of structured environment to work in, in order to stay productive. Being able to do anything and everything my heart chooses? Not always a good idea.

So, I've decided to give myself some structure.

The annual Pazz & Jop poll, inaugurated by Robert Christgau in 1971, is a year-end poll of music critics. Through a scoring system, the top thirty albums of the year are listed and ranked. Generally, if an album makes number one, it was pretty damn good.

What does this have to do with me? Well, I'm going to listen to, and subsequently write about all of the Pazz & Jop number ones, starting in '74. Of course, for legality's sake, I'll have to generate some sort of visual accompaniment. They may be pencil drawings, paintings, or something completely different.